UK question: How do doctors decide how much medicine to prescribe, 3 weeks, 4 weeks, or 8 weeks etc?

Question

If someone has a chronic condition, they could be on the medication for over a year.

If they have a 4 week prescription, they have to pay the prescription charge 13 times a year.

3 week prescription:pay ~17 times a year

8 week prescription: pay ~7 times a year

12 week prescription: pay ~4 times a year

The size of the prescription determines how expensive its going to be over the long term.

Answer 1

Impossible to be exact, because people don't always take thier medication exactly as prescribed.  However, if someone has a long term/chronic condition and they are having to pay for prescriptions, then the best thing to do is to get a so-called 'season ticket'.  Then you don't have to pay for individual items. (UK info.)

Answer 2

This will depend on how often the doctor wants to check up on your condition.

Many drugs have side effects that need to be watched for. It would be a poor doctor that simply gave a long term prescription without any checkups along the way.

Just be happy that you aren't paying the full cost of the drug.

Answer 3

Depends on how much stock the doctor owns in the particular pharmaceutical company. If he/she has a significant ownership then you be sure to be precsribed several months worth of the medication.

Answer 4

I am sure the UK is similar to the US. Depending on the drug prescribed, commonly the doctor will want to do blood work to make sure your levels are ok. Some drugs can effect your liver enzymes while others may raise or lower your WBC or RBC. In some cases, they want to check the level of the drug in your blood & how you are tolerating it. Shorter scripts are also used to evaluate you for side effects. New medication dosages may need  to be tweaked or other meds may need to be substituted due to adverse effects. These are all good reasons to have a shorter script length, otherwise you could be stuck with a surplus of non-refundable & non-usable pills....which  inturn, would be more expensive in the long run.

In addition, many drugs can't be legally prescribed for more than a 3 or 8 week time frame for legal reasons. These drugs are classified under Schedule I,ll, lll, IV (see site for specifics)

http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling...

This is usually done to halt the resale of controlled substances on the black market or to discourage abuse.

Next time you visit your doctor, you can discuss the specific drug you are on & see if he can prescribe it the most cost effective way possible.( In some cases generics may be applicable & cheaper, depends on the drug) Also, always ask for samples too....depending on the drug, you can usually get a months free to save a few $$. Hope this helps!

Answer 5

no science,they are experimenting,because

each body response in a different way